Title

Leveraging Online University Education To Improve K-12 Science Education: The Sciencemaster Case Study

Abstract

While many K-12 teachers, especially those in elementary education, have extensive academic training and work experience in effective pedagogy, there is a concern that their discipline-specific knowledge may not be as robust as is necessary to address the needs of today's students in a competitive, global environment. This is especially true in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. To address this need, Florida's Manatee County School District partnered with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) and Nova Southeastern University (NSU) to develop the ScienceMaster program. The ScienceMaster program leveraged existing university expertise in science-related online education to provide in-service professional development for teachers, especially teachers in low-performing elementary schools. The ScienceMaster program offered full scholarships for online Master's degrees from ERAU or NSU to competitively-selected K-12 teachers, ad hoc graduate and undergraduate courses for those teachers not selected for full scholarships but who could benefit from an individual course, and just-in-time self-paced Web tutorials on a variety of science subjects. Teachers selected to receive full scholarships were required to commit to completing accelerated programs and serving as mentors in their schools, thus enabling a multiplier effect as a return on the scholarship investment. © 2011, IGI Global.

Publication Date

12-1-2011

Publication Title

Higher Education, Emerging Technologies, and Community Partnerships: Concepts, Models and Practices

Number of Pages

221-233

Document Type

Article; Book Chapter

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60960-623-7.ch020

Socpus ID

84898252470 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84898252470

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS